# gather(1)

## NAME

         gather - gather up the files in a directory for transmission

## SYNOPSIS

         gather [-s] source_dir [-d] dest_dir [-b] bytes [-f] file

## OPTIONS

         -b   Desired number of bytes per output file

         -d   Destination directory

         -f   Base name of output files

         -s   Source directory

## EXAMPLES

         gather              # Collect files in current dir into 60K archives

         gather -d dir       # Put the archives in dir

         gather -b 90000     # Try to produce 90K archives

         gather -s .. -d targ -b 5000
                             # Try to produce 5K archives

## DESCRIPTION

         It is often useful to collect all the files in a directory  into  one  or
         more  archives  for  transmission by mail.  This program collects all the
         files in the source directory (default: current directory) and puts  them
         into  a shar archive.  The shar archive is then compressed and uuencoded.
         An attempt is made to have the final .uue file be about  the  given  size
         (default: 60K), but since gather cannot really predict how much shar will
         add to the file, how much compress will reduce the file, and how much uue
         will  add  again, the sizes can fluctuate.  If the -f file flag is given,
         the archives will be given the names file_00.uue, file_01.uue etc.  If -f
         is  not given, the name of the source directory is used as the base name.
         Since 7 characters of suffix are  appended,  the  base  name  should  not
         exceed 7 characters.